Invincible Iron Army 24, Difficult Steps Book Flag
Du Lin, Qian Xiangqian, Wang Xueli, Qian Xuanguo and Sun Zhicheng felt worried and said to each other: "The governor believes the words of a small soldier, it's really ridiculous. Once the reinforcements meet the Huns' army in the wilderness, they will encounter a disaster." Wang Xueli said: "It's really a joke that someone claims to be able to resist the Huns for three days, isn't this the biggest joke? Even if all the troops are sent out, it can't be done."
Liu Jiao also had doubts about Wang An's words, thinking to herself: "Is Wang An deceiving me? Even if I don't understand military affairs well, I know that the Xiongnu have formidable fighting power. Is there really a force in this world that can stop their advance? If Wang An dares to deceive me, I will not forgive him."
The Xiongnu soldiers were also loudly scolding, they searched for a whole hour, but couldn't find the Jin army's troops, so they had to proceed cautiously. But after walking ten miles, no new mechanisms appeared, and gradually the Xiongnu's hearts also gradually put down their guard. Suddenly, in the middle of the Xiongnu formation, a section sank down, with this place as the center, radiating outwards on both sides, one by one falling into the pit. In an instant, about two miles of road had all fallen in, and about 1,000 Xiongnu soldiers fell into the trap, many were pierced to death by the sharp bamboo stakes and pointed wooden sticks at the bottom of the pit.
The Huns were in a state of panic. They were not afraid to die, but they feared dying without knowing what was happening. Each one stared at the ground, fearing that it would collapse again.
Wang An hid in the dark and shouted "what a pity" in his heart. He said to Jiang Cai: "This is called 'rolling dragon', after the supporting wooden stick falls, they will collide with each other, making the ground within ten miles collapse. Unfortunately, this is our second attempt, some problems occurred, only two miles of land collapsed, and others did not collapse. Otherwise, it would be possible for tens of thousands of enemy soldiers to die." Jiang Cai admired Wang An more and more, thinking "I was right to follow the Wang brothers in disobeying orders, the Wang brothers' ingenious plans are endless, what a misfortune for their enemies". Zhang Wan asked: "Wang brothers, how did you know this method?" Wang An replied: "I saw it in an ancient book on military tactics, and today I used it, indeed the effect is extraordinary."
Jiang Zai praised and said: "In the past, our entire Youyu area, eliminating a thousand Xiongnu troops in a year was already a great victory. But after Wang brothers came, we eliminated a thousand enemy troops every time we fought, which became extremely easy." Li Li only felt a little sorry and said: "It's just that we can't get the enemy's heads, killing enemies but can't make achievements." Wang An and others also felt sorry, but reason told them not to miss those heads, because there were tens of thousands of enemy soldiers under the mountain. Now going to cut off the enemy's head is suicide.
The Huns buried the bodies of the soldiers and then continued to advance, but this time they became extremely cautious. The soldiers dismounted their horses and proceeded on foot, using wooden sticks to tap the ground as they marched, greatly slowing down the entire army's pace.
Liu Jiao and Du Lin were still in the mansion of the governor, they climbed up to the city wall, looking north, praying that the Xiongnu would not come too quickly. Suddenly, a scout rushed in to report: "The Xiongnu are approaching! They have already reached the northern slope of the mountain!"
When the sun rose on the second day, Liu Jiao and others once again climbed up to the city wall, gazing northward. They prayed that Wang An would be able to hold off the Xiongnu for another day, by which time the situation would surely take a turn for the better. Liu Jiao had already mobilized nearby troops, and expected that an army of 10,000 men would arrive at Yucheng by this afternoon, by which time the entire situation would surely take a turn for the better.
The Xiongnu delayed for a day, and the army advanced slowly. This speed was unbearable to the Youxian King of the Xiongnu, who had always hoped to rush to the foot of Fuyu City and catch the Jin army off guard. However, the dense traps disrupted his deployment, and yesterday the Xiongnu army discovered many more traps on the road ahead. If the Xiongnu army advanced rashly, they would surely suffer heavy casualties.
Yu Xianwang found the Chanyu and suggested to him, "Chanyu, we can take a detour and advance on both sides of the mountain. We won't take the main road. The soil on the mountain is scarce, and below are all rocks. The Jin soldiers cannot set up ambushes there." The Xiongnu listened and thought it made sense, so they passed down the order for the army to advance on both sides of the mountain.
The Xiongnu cavalry accelerated their advance as they reached the mountain, and seeing the speed of the Xiongnu's advance, Youxian King said with a smile: "At this rate, we will definitely arrive at Yucheng tonight." As soon as he finished speaking, many soldiers' war horses suddenly fell to the ground, throwing off the cavalry on their backs.
The Huns' troops were in a state of confusion again, thinking they had encountered the Jin army's ambush. The entire army was in chaos for a while before slowly calming down and carefully searching for the reason. It turned out that the Huns' war horses had been injured by wooden objects piercing their hooves, which caused the cavalry to fall off.
The Xiongnu chanyu felt at ease, thinking that the wooden thorn might have been left behind by the Jin people who were cutting wood nearby. Its top was extremely sharp and it was no wonder that it had pierced through the horse's hoof. He immediately ordered his troops to continue advancing. However, as they advanced further, more and more Xiongnu soldiers had their horses' hooves pierced. Now even the chanyu knew that something was amiss. They carefully searched and finally found these wooden thorns hidden among the grass and trees. These things had four sharp thorns, and when thrown to the ground, at least one of them would always be pointing upwards. The Xiongnu called over a captured Han craftsman and asked him to identify it. After careful examination, the craftsman told the Xiongnu chanyu: "This is a wooden caltrop, specifically used to counter cavalry."
The Xiongnu cavalry once again became the vanguard, carefully searching for thorny shrubs on the mountain to clear a path for the troops behind. Zhang Wan saw this and couldn't help but admire Wang An, thinking to himself that he had no idea how Wang An came up with this idea. Wang An also noticed everyone's confusion and said to them: "This is all in military books, you just didn't notice." Zhang Wan made a bitter face and said: "It's not that we didn't notice, it's just that we can't read at all."
The Xiongnu soldiers returned to the road again, thinking that since they had to search anyway, why not proceed on the main road, which was easier to walk.
Liu Jiao saw that it was already noon, and suddenly felt a bit more confident in her heart. She thought to herself that if the reinforcements arrived within an hour, they would be able to reach Yu Yang, and with the reinforcements, their city defense strength would be greatly enhanced. With the addition of the militia organized within the city, their confidence in resisting the Xiongnu would once again be fully restored.
At this time, Dulin said behind Liu Jiao: "Jiedushi, we just received some bad news." Liu Jiao's heart sank and she said: "Is it that the Xiongnu army has accelerated its advance and will arrive here soon?" Dulin said: "No, but the nearby reinforcements have not set out immediately after receiving the order. They are worried about encountering the Xiongnu cavalry outside the city and having to engage in a field battle, which would put them at risk of annihilation. So they didn't start until now." Liu Jiao was furious and said: "Treason! How dare you disobey military orders and miss the opportunity to attack? I will..." At this time, Dulin pinched Liu Jiao's waist, and Liu Jiao's eyes welled up with tears. She said: "Ouch, ouch, Dulin, I didn't expect you to be so playful at your age." Dulin's face turned red, and he hastily whispered to Liu Jiao: "The commander of this army is leading the troops outside, and you have no way to deal with him. If you want to punish him, it will only make things worse. What if he leads his troops to rebel? Even if he deliberately slows down the march, we will still face a very dangerous situation. Why don't we just let bygones be bygones and pardon all his crimes? This general will definitely speed up his arrival." Liu Jiao saw that what he said made sense, so she had no choice but to pardon his crimes.
However, the Huns have now accelerated their march. The reason is that a Han strategist came up with an idea for the Huns. Since the Huns had many war horses, why not select some unmanned war horses and put them in front, then drive them to advance quickly? Once they encountered traps, these war horses would fall into them, thus eliminating the traps, and the main force could also advance quickly. Isn't this a wonderful plan that kills two birds with one stone? The Huns' Khan immediately adopted his suggestion, and the army's marching speed soon picked up.
Jiang Zai saw this situation and looked worried, saying: "The Huns are accelerating their march, will Yuyang City be in danger?" Wang An said: "Don't worry, the Huns' marching speed is still limited by the terrain. At this speed, they can only reach Yuyang City tomorrow evening. By then, the reinforcements will have arrived, and Yuyang City will be as solid as gold. The Huns will also be helpless."
The messenger rushed to convey the order to Wang An: "The commander has an order, no matter what, Wang An must delay the Huns' troops for one more day." Upon receiving this command, everyone including Wang An jumped up, what a joke! According to the current design of the mechanism, at most they could only slow down the enemy's advance by one day, and adding another day was impossible. Jiang Cai sighed: "If Liu Jiao had given us more silver earlier, we could have hired more civilians to build more traps. If Liu Jiao hadn't stopped Wang An from building these fortifications back then, it would be possible to delay them further. Now... alas, too late." The messenger said: "We don't care about that, you received the order and must execute it unconditionally, otherwise, you will be killed without pardon." Du Lu said: "There's another way, we can kill the messenger and pretend we didn't receive the order." Others applauded and said: "Great idea!"
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